ESEA Bill Boosts Research Role in Ed. Programs

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, attends the markup on Oct. 20.

—Andrew Councill for Education Week

Measure would solidify authority of IES and funding for evaluation

By Sarah D. Sparks

A slew of quiet changes in the Senate bill to reauthorize federal education law would substantially increase the role of research in federal education programs.

The latest version of the bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, put forth by U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate education committee, and Sen. Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, the committee’s lead Republican, was approved 15-7 by the panel on Oct. 20 after its introduction last week.

The bill has been controversial from the get-go, with civil rights groups criticizing its overhaul of the accountability system set up under the current law, the No Child Left Behind Act, and many states and administrator groups voicing concern that its provisions...